About me

I am a postdoctoral research fellow in Mathematics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, working in category theory and its applications to algebra, geometry and logic.
I am advancing categorical algebra and topology using 2-dimensional category theory and Grothendieck fibrations.
My interests go beyond category theory and lead me to also contribute to general algebra, pointfree topology and logic, collaborating with numerous researchers across the world.

Before my current position, I was a postdoctoral research fellow at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. There, I started the on-going project to apply 2-dimensional category theory
and Grothendieck fibrations to algebra, while also working in descent theory.
Earlier, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, working in category theory, pointfree topology and algebra.
I obtained my PhD in Mathematics in June 2024 at the University of Leeds, UK, under the supervision of Nicola Gambino. My PhD thesis contributed to expanding the foundations of
2-categorical elementary topos theory. In particular, I presented a novel technique of reduction of the study of 2-classifiers to dense generators. I then applied it to generalize to dimension 2 the fundamental result that Grothendieck topoi are elementary topoi.

My research visits include the University of Manchester in the UK (2026, 2023, 2022), Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium (2026), Universidade do Minho in Portugal (2026), University of Genova in Italy (2026, 2025, 2023), Stellenbosch University in South Africa (2025) and the National Technical University of Athens in Greece (2023).

I deeply value science outreach. As an active member of the Future Mathematicians Programme, I organise and lead mathematical structures explorations in various cities of
South Africa, aiming to expose school learners and undergraduates to abstract mathematics.
In my free time, I enjoy creating mathematical and non-mathematical board games, that teach mathematical concepts and structural thinking in a fun way and with a lower entry barrier.
You can find some of my board games here.

I am very passionate about Mathematics and I am a positive person who always smiles.
I value love, truth and consistency.
Feel free to get in touch with me at luca.mesiti@outlook.com